Progress Update: April 20, 2008

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It’s been an interesting week. My swing went south, so it seemed like the perfect time to do something I’ve been meaning to do. I broke out the video camera for some analysis. I’d like to share the video here, but my technology is a little outdated, making it difficult to get the videos uploaded in a usable form, so we’ll just talk about it until I work that issue out.

My main goals were to see how I’m progressing with the one-plane swing and to see if I could figure out my swing problems. Over the last week, I haven’t been playing terribly, but I’ve been seeing the following symptoms:

• Contact with the ball has degraded slightly
• I’ve been smothering the ball, especially with the driver
• I’ve been blocking the driver way right

With those things in mind, I broke down the video this morning when I got home and took a lot of notes. I was very interested with what I saw. Some things were better than I thought, and some things were worse.

One positive thing I saw was that my swing plane on the back swing was pretty good. My perception was that I wasn’t quite on plane yet. However, my left arm was just about perfectly on plane. On some of my shots, the club was in good position, but sometimes it was getting on top of the plane.

Another positive I saw was that my posture is pretty decent. I’m bent over a little more at address, which is a fundamental of the one-plane swing. One thing I’d like to change is a little slumping in my shoulders, and I’d like to get my chin a little higher.

Also, one other good thing I noticed was a full 90-degree shoulder turn in the back swing. That’s right where it should be.

There weren’t a lot of notable positives beyond that. There were quite a few negatives, though.

One big one that I had perceived without the video is that my left wrist is not flat enough at the top of the back swing. Often, it was very cupped.

If you don’t understand what I mean by “cupped”, here’s what I’m talking about. Hold your arm out in front of you with your palm facing the floor. Bend your hand toward the ceiling without moving your arm. Your wrist is now cupped.

Doing that at the top of the back swing causes the club face to be very open. To get back to square, the hands need to be flipped closed near impact. This is a possible cause of some snap hooks I’ve been seeing.

The biggest problem I saw was a serious hip slide on the down swing. So much so, that my weight was getting to the outside of my left foot my impact. That’s causing me a whole slew of problems.

The one-plane swing is very rotational. The player’s head remains fairly steady during the swing, and the idea of “staying behind the ball” is not part of the one-plane swing philosophy. The player is encouraged to stay centered during the swing and turn the upper body hard through impact.

What I saw on video was the down swing starting with that lateral slide, starting a chain reaction of other problems. The club immediately got very steep (more vertical than the swing plane) as the down swing started. That forced me to get my head behind the ball and tilt my spine more to the right as I approached impact. This is a defense mechanism to keep me from smothering the ball. With my weight shifting so far left and the club getting so steep, it’s the only way to keep from coming right down on top of the ball. Obviously, I’m failing at times on the course and seeing some smothered shots.

Tweaks

The biggest tweaks coming up are going to be on the driving range.

By far, the most important thing I need to work on is conquering that lateral hip slide. That will help me iron out several of the problems I’m seeing. I also want to work on getting my left wrist flatter in the back swing.

Those two things are my immediate concern.